


Inspired by Wasting Time on the Interwebs

by Theyna_Shipper



Series: Star Wars One-Shots [33]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Alternate Universe-1950s, Angst, Based on a Tumblr Post, Best Friends, Canon Compliant, Childhood Sweethearts, Crack, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Inspired By Tumblr, Inspired by Twitter, Miscommunication, One-Shots, Twitter: reylo_prompts, canonverse, collection, reylo prompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:01:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 7,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26906284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theyna_Shipper/pseuds/Theyna_Shipper
Summary: Collection of ficlets, drabbles, and oneshots inspired by wasting time on pinterest and the various social media screenshots I see there. I've been saving the ones that seemed like AUs to a board for months and now I'm finally writing them.Interspersed with Reylo prompts, inspired by real life, and just fics that didn't seem like enough to stand alone. Mostly fluff. Please enjoy!
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Star Wars One-Shots [33]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1637683
Comments: 72
Kudos: 73





	1. I Can Explain

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my humble abode of three brain cells. 
> 
> First installment: Nutella. 
> 
> Inspiration: https://www.pinterest.de/pin/353814114480314975/
> 
> CW: brief reference to violence, blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I can explain. No, I can't."
> 
> Imagine your OTP prompt on Tumblr

Ben’s used to not sleeping well at night. Insomnia has bothered him since he was a little kid. 

At least sixty percent of the time, though, some chamomile tea and reading can calm him down to sleep. 

Most of the time, though, there isn’t a girl sitting on his kitchen floor, bleeding from a head wound, and eating Nutella with his spoon. 

“I CAN EXPLAIN!” the stranger shrieks as he walks in. 

They stand there for several seconds, just staring at each other. Ben waits for the aforementioned explanation, but the girl just stares at him, her brain clearly working overtime behind her nervous eyes. 

“No, I can’t,” she decides. “I… Do you want some Nutella?”

For some reason, _this_ is what brings him out of his shock. “I’m allergic to hazelnuts.”

“Oh! Shoot. I- I didn’t get it on anything. Wait, how allergic are you? Do I need to get out right now, are you going to start hyperventilating?” She speaks with the alarming rapidity of someone who has just inhaled half a jar of chocolate hazelnut spread. 

“If you were to leave right now it would not be because of my allergies,” he replies. “What did you do to your head? Did someone hurt you?” Maybe he’s misreading this. Maybe this woman needs to be protected from someone, and he doesn’t want to turn her out if she does. 

“I- not exactly.” She touches her head, and pulls her blood-stained fingers away. “It wasn’t this bad earlier,” she remarks, sounding more curious than concerned. 

Ben shakes his head. “Let me look at your head, you can tell me what happened and we’ll decide what to do.”

“You mean decide whether or not to press charges for breaking and entering?” She tries to stand up, but stumbles and grabs the counter for support. “Because you definitely have grounds.”

 _”Please_ sit down and let me look at your head. You’re going to hurt yourself even more.”

Because this is a normal thing to do. To find a stranger in your kitchen in the middle of the night, and to put them on your counter so you can look at their head wound instead of immediately calling the police. 

“Are you a doctor?” she asks chipperly while he brushes her hair away from the cut. 

“Nurse practitioner,” he mutters. “I think you still owe me an explanation?”

“Right.” She winces slightly as he applies pressure to the bleeding with a towel. “So, you know that gas station on Redmond? The really sketchy one that only sells those-off brand snacks?”

“Yes.” He went to that gas station once, felt certain he was going to be murdered, and immediately left. 

“I work there,” she continues. “Well, I _used_ to work there. Anyways, Plutt- that’s my boss- oh, I don’t think I gave you my name, I’m Rey, nice to meet you- he thought I was stealing from the store.”

“Were you?” he pulls the towel away. The bleeding has mostly stopped. 

“No! And I told him, but he didn’t believe me, and I said maybe he should just fire me, so he said he would, so I left. And I took the jar of Nutella because, you know, spite. So technically I _did_ steal once, but I prefer to call it severance pay.”

“This is going to sting.” He presses an alcohol pad to the cut, and she winces and squeezes his other hand. “And then you broke into my house because…?”

“ _Right._ Well, Plutt sent some of his friends to chase after me, and I was running and I saw your window was open so I thought it would be a good place to hide out for a bit. It made sense in my head.”

“Yes, your head. How exactly-?”

“Oh. Well I jumped in your window so fast that I fell over and hit my head on the counter- don’t worry, I didn’t get any blood on it, I’m tidy like that.” 

His fingers stumble as he unwraps the gauze pad. Everything about this woman is confusing and yet intriguing, including ~~how beautiful she is once the blood is cleaned up.~~

“At that point I remembered I hadn’t eaten anything since last night and my blood sugar was probably way too low so I decided to sit down and eat my- um- severance pay.” She holds out her hands to indicate the story is done. 

“I see.” He doesn’t. 

“Please don’t call the police.”

“I won’t,” he promises. “But you should really consider not jumping into stranger’s houses in the middle of the night.”

“Won’t happen again,” she promises. 

Ben helps her off the counter. “Do you have anyone you’d like to call, someone who might be worried about you, boyfriend-”

“Are you asking if I’m single? Very smooth.” 

“No, I wasn’t, I don’t-”

“‘S’okay. I am, by the way,” she adds with a wink. “Well, I’ll be on my way. My apartment is just a block from here. Sorry to impose. Thanks for the Nutella.” 

“I- wait,” he calls as she leaves. “You’re obviously too sleep-deprived and hungry to walk home alone. And it would be irresponsible not to keep an eye on that head wound.” He crosses his arms. “You’d better stay.” 

“You sure? I mean, I _am_ a total stranger who broke into your house and ate your Nutella.” 

“Not my Nutella,” he repeats. “And yes, I’m sure. There’s leftover tuna rice in the fridge. You need protein. You can sleep on the couch.”

“Well,” Rey sighs, “When you get murdered in your sleep, don’t blame me, Mr.- um- what’s your name?”

 _Right._ His name. He has that. “Ben.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Ben,” she says with a chocolatey grin.

* * *

“So, how did you meet?” Ben’s mother asks when he brings her home for Christmas that year. “Ben just said it was complicated.”

“We, um…” 

Rey sits up primly. “I can explain.”


	2. Backseat Bingo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the 1950s, "Come on snake, let's rattle," had two meanings: asking someone to dance OR asking someone to fight you. Imagine you invite your crush to the dance floor but they just deck you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspo: https://www.reddit.com/r/tumblr/comments/97sswk/shake_rattle_and_roll_b/
> 
> Here's another little drabble inspired by something I saw on Pinterest. Comments and prompts still welcome!

“Oh no.”

“What?” Rose asks, giggling as she steps off the dance floor.

“He’s looking this way, isn’t he?”

“Who?”

“Ben Solo.” Rey looks at him nervously again, then snaps away. 

“I wouldn’t be surprised, you look class tonight.”

_“Rose.”_ Besides the fact that they wouldn’t let her in the dance when she was wearing pants and she had to borrow a dress from Kaydel’s trunk, that is _not_ why he’s looking over here. “This is bad. Should I go?”

“We just got here!” Rose laughs. “Don’t let him ruin it for you. He’s probably not even looking. C’mon we’ll have ball.” 

“He’s definitely looking,” Rey mumbles while Rose drags her away to the punch table. 

She feels Ben’s eyes on her through the course of several more dances, glaring at her across the room, but a friendly dance with Finn and another one with Poe serve to distract her for a bit. She’s actually having fun until he starts walking across the gymnasium to her. 

He skulks around her nervously for a moment, not saying anything, leaving her completely on edge. Finally, she snaps her head to him and says, “Do you want something?”

He holds out one hand nervously, and she swears she sees the corner of his mouth twitch up. “Come on snake, let’s rattle.”

_Does he seriously want to do this right here?_ she thinks, but if he does, then she will. So she pulls back her first, stabilizes herself on her rickety heels, and gives Ben a solid sock in the nose. 

A few people gasp and look over while Ben stumbles back, clutching his nose. “What the hell?” He grunts through his hands. 

Rey kicks off her shoes. “If you want to fight, let’s do it!” 

“I was asking you to dance, Rey!”

_Oh._

“Oh.”

“Oh,” Ben echoes. “Never mind, I’ll j-”

“Do you want some ice for that?” Rey asks, suddenly feeling bad. “It’s bleeding a little bad.” 

Ben wipes his nose with sleeve of his suit coat, trying to ignore the blood spurting. “M’okay,” he mumbles.

“Here, let me have a look it at,” Rey insists, wrapping up some ice cubes in a napkin and leading him out of the gymnasium. “I have a little disinfectant in my car.” 

Ben accepts the help, albeit looking concerned that if he refuses he’ll get punched again. 

“You punch hard,” Ben grunts through a face full of napkins.

“What, for a girl?”

“For _anyone._ I’ll have a shiner for weeks like this.” 

“Hm, sorry to mess up your pretty face.”

Ben grins. “Pretty?”

“Oh, shut it,” Rey mumbles, and walks ahead to her car to get a First Aid kit. 

“You really thought I wanted to fight you?” Ben asks, perched on the roof of her car while she wipes the blood off his face. “Why’d I want to do that?”

Rey winces slightly. “‘Cus I slashed your motorcycle tires.”

He snorts, making Rey drop the ice. “Sorry,” he mumbles. “But- that was _you_?”

“Yes,” she admits. “At the beginning of the year, I got the locker under yours, and you never moved out of the way, and I thought you deserved to be knocked down a peg.” 

“So you slashed my bike tires?” 

“It was a rough September.” 

Rey puts this ice back on his nose. “You still don’t want to fight me?” 

“September’s ancient history. I probably deserved it,” he admits. 

“And you’re not just saying that ‘cus you wouldn’t fight a girl?”

“I think I’m smart enough not to fight someone who could beat me down like you.” He winks. 

Rey rolls her eyes. 

“‘Sides, I still want that dance from you,” he adds, sliding off the hood. 

Rey blushes and looks down as he extends a hand to her. 

“Come on snake, let’s rattle.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> I've marked this story as finished so it shows up that way on the search filter but I'll still be adding more drabbles. 
> 
> Also, the title: while researching '50s slang, I found out that 'backseat bingo' meant making out in the back of a car, so I threw that in just for fun ;)
> 
> Kudos and comments welcome!


	3. Angel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He moved in next door. She was watching his family unpack toys from the moving van and saw 'a boy who looked like an angel'. She was a tree climbing, pocket knife wielding non-romantic & had never noticed a boy before. She said he made her feel funny & out of breath. They were 12.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by this tweet retweeted by @reylo_prompts: https://twitter.com/Poorboy_stories/status/1317083154440740869
> 
> Funny story, in trying to find the original tweet I ended up accidentally twitter-stalking this author just cus she tweets so much. Oops. I learned something about Scottish witch burnings, at least. 
> 
> Anyways, please enjoy this fluffly ficlet!

Rey is hidden behind dense foliage, high up in her favorite tree, when she hears the sounds of a truck pulling up in front of her house. By the time she’s fought her way to the top of the tree, someone is opening the back of a moving truck in front of the house next door. She’d noticed it was for sale, but hadn’t paid much attention to who was buying it. The only people who lived in her neighborhood, it seemed, were old people like her grandpa, and sometimes the occasional grandchild visitor. 

This time, though, she sees a youngish couple step out of the cab of the van, already arguing about something Rey can’t hear. A dark-haired boy tumbles out after them, looking miserable with his head turned down, like this had been going on the whole drive.

“Ben, stop moping!” the man shouts. He looks up slowly, and Rey forgets how to breathe. 

The boy, Ben looks like an angel. Like one of the angels in the stained-glass windows at the Church Rey goes to, twice a year for Christmas and Easter, with her grandpa. A beautiful, heaven-sent angel with a halo of messy, dark curls. 

He looks up to where Rey is in the tree, and she panics and disappears into the thick and leafy parts of the tree. 

But she can’t resist peering at him through the branches, watching him empty the U-haul and bring boxes into the house. 

She’s never noticed a boy or girl before, at least not like this. Not in this way that makes her feel all funny and short of breath. She stays in the tree until he disappears in the house for the last time. Just before he goes inside, he looks up into the tree, and looks away, when Rey stays put. 

Still thinking about the boy, Rey slides down the trunk of the tree for dinner. 

“You have leaves in your hair,” is all her grandfather says when she comes to the table. 

Rey brushes the leaves out of her hair and onto the floor. “There’s a new family next door.”

“Oh? Did you meet them?”

Rey shakes her head. “There’s a man and a lady and a boy my age.” 

“A _boy?_ ” he says with a frown. 

“Grandpa!” she groans, fighting a blush. 

He wrinkles his nose. “Eat your dinner, Reyand maybe if you clean up a little you can make a good impression on the neighbors.”

* * *

The next day, Rey watches him from the tree again. He’s taken a break from emptying the moving boxes, and now he’s drawn a target on his fence and started throwing darts at it. 

“You’re doin’ it wrong,” Rey shouts from the tree.

Ben looks up at her in surprise. “What?” 

“You’re throwin’ them wrong,” she repeats. “Let me show you.”

He is waiting at the foot of the tree when she comes down. “Why were you watching me?”

Rey shrugs. “Not much else to do ‘round here. Why were you throwin’ darts?”

“Haven’t unpacked anything else yet.” 

She holds out her hand for the darts. “Lemme show you how.”

He begrudgingly hands it over to her. “How do _you_ do it?”

“You’re usin’ your arm, you’ve gotta use your wrist.” And with an easy flick, she drives the dart to the center of the dartboard. “See?”

“Let me try.” He snatches the dart from Rey and imitates her toss, landing it much closer to the bullseye than he had been. “Huh. Where did you learn that?”

“Throwin’ knives.” 

At this, he actually _laughs._

“What’s so funny?”

“I bet you can’t really throw knives.”

He’s not the first boy who’s said that to her and he probably won’t be the last. So she pulls her pocket-knife from the sheath on her hip and throws it into the center of the dartboard, landing it right next to her dart on the bullseye. 

“Really think I can’t throw a knife, huh?”

“I guess you really can,” he admits with a smile. “I’m Ben, by the way.”

Rey grins. “I’m Rey. Nice to meet you.” She extends her hand for a shake, the way her grandfather taught her. 

And she doesn’t notice it, but when they shake hands, well, now Ben is the one looking at her like she’s an angel.

* * *

Unlike all her other neighbors, Ben doesn’t move away. His family stays in the house next door, and she becomes best friends with the angel-boy who makes her breath feel funny. Except now he does it because he makes her laugh, or because his crinkly smile that takes up his whole face sends up that fluttery feeling in her chest all over again. 

“You’re fourteen and you’ve never climbed a tree in your life, Benjamin!” Rey shouts down at him. “I think this is my biggest failure as your friend. Now come on, it’s not so bad.”

“My name’s not Benjamin,” he shouts back. “And I don’t like heights.”

“It’s not too high,” she sighs. “Please, Ben?”

“What’s the point, even? It’s just ground that’s higher than other ground.”

She shakes her head. “Tell that to me when you get killed in a duel where you had the low ground.”

“I can’t. I’ll be dead.” 

“Then let me save you and come up here.” She holds out her hand. “Join me, Ben.” 

“If I die, you’d better tell people it was a duel,” he warns, taking her hand and gingerly setting his foot on a low branch. 

“Cross my heart.”

* * *

Their first kiss is one on the Fourth of July, when Rey is fourteen and Ben has just turned fifteen. 

Ben has been nursing a gentle crush on Rey since the start of 9th grade, when she fell into his lap on the bus when the driver floored the gas before she was ready. As she tumbled onto him, shrieks dissolving into giggles as she realizes the ridiculousness of the situation. 

Well, that’s what she realizes. Not Ben. No, he is faced all-at-once with his feelings for her even as she nearly breaks his wrists grabbing him for support. 

Rey, naturally, has been covering feelings for Ben since he first moved in, though they’ve fluctuated from time to time, and took months to admit them to herself. 

This July, she’s dragged him up into a tree to watch the fireworks. Rey is eating a hot dog, and Ben sees a dollop of ketchup smearing her cupid’s bow and just gently. Ben reaches out to wipe it away with one of their brown paper napkins, but he misses and instead just brushes her lips with his thumb. And it’s actually Rey who kisses him, because apparently she interpreted something from his movement, and maybe her interpretation was wrong, but it’s not like he’s complaining, even if it’s a messy, ketchup-flavored kiss. 

Rey just grins at her angel in her tree, because how could he hate heights, when he came down from heaven?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think my atheism but love of Catholic symbolism really comes through in here, lol. 
> 
> Anyways, I'm still taking prompts if any of you have any, or an online prompt you've seen that you'd like to see my try. Kudos and comments are greatly appreciated. Thank you!


	4. Fold Your Dang Clothes, Ben

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Living with a jedi would be stressful as hell. Any time you saw them leave their clothes out you'd be like, "oh no""

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A very stupid drabble inspired by this tweet: https://twitter.com/adambroud/status/1215016015370899456?s=21
> 
> Thanks for reading!

It has taken time to adjust to life on Naboo– what with having to retrieve soulmates from the World-Between-Worlds, hide him from the authorities while creating a contingency plan, and remodel a near-ruined house. But, finally Rey and Ben have settled in to their home, and Ben is no longer the galaxy's most wanted man. 

The ghosts of the war, Exegol, Snoke, and Jakku still haunt them. There are still nights when one of them will wake up shaking from a nightmare, only soothed back to sleep by the other's gentle caresses. There are still nights when Rey will wake up alone and panic, sick and scared, thinking he has left and she is alone once more. Or nights where Ben will roll over and see how still Rey lies, and be terrified that he has lost her again. 

Coming home at the end of a long day at their machine shop, Rey is happy to slip out of her clothes and into a comfy pair of pajamas (AKA a shirt stolen from her husband). She was alone at work today, Ben staying home sick with a cold. She hadn't wanted to leave, but Ben had insisted that he would be fine, and she could check on him through the bond a few times. 

But when she goes back to the bedroom to check on him, she only finds his clothes crumpled on the floor. Her heart leaps into her throat– the last time she saw his clothes like this was on the temple floor on Exegol, just a shirt and pants and her own empty hands. But he hadn't seemed so sick when she last saw him just a few hours ago! And surely she would have felt if something had happened to him. 

"Ben!" she shouts in a panic, tearing through their house. "Ben!" 

It is maybe a few minutes, or maybe only a second, before she finds him in the kitchen in his pajamas, but panic blocks her sense of time. 

"Ben," she gasps with relief, collapsing into his arms and burying her head in his shirt. "Ben."

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" he asks, stroking her hair gently. "What's wrong?"

"I saw your clothes," she says weakly. "And you weren't there, and they were just lying there like... I thought I'd lost you, Ben."

"I'm right here, my love," he chuckles. "I don't plan on leaving you anytime soon."

Rey wipes her eyes, feeling a little silly for panicking about this, but she knows she'll always be scared to lose her soulmate. "I love you," she mumbles into his shirt. 

"I love you too, darling." He kisses her head. "And I promise I'll fold my clothes next time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was this an excuse to write Ben saying cute nicknames to Rey? Maybe. Either way I hope you enjoyed. Still taking prompts, thanks for reading, please like and comment!


	5. Upgrades

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "When I lost my ex at a party I found hooking up with another girl in the next room.
> 
> Last night I lost my boyfriend at a party and found him alone eating buffalo chicken dip straight out of the crockpot
> 
> upgrades."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I'm supposed to be writing my friend's birthday fic but Sherlock is scary and I wanted to do this drabble (don't worry I still have plenty of time). 
> 
> Also I changed the fic name because I didn't like the old name. 
> 
> Inspiration: https://9gag.com/gag/a0QZ5bn
> 
> Thanks for reading!

“I don’t want to go,” Ben whines softly, pulling Rey into his lap when she tries to stand up to put her shoes on. 

“We promised we would,” she replies, trying to disentangle herself. “And you can stay with me the whole time if you want, it won’t be that bad.”

_“Or,”_ he insists, nuzzling her hair. “We can stay here, _not_ go to Poe’s party, and have just as much fun. More, because there won’t be drunk freshmen all over.” 

Rey kisses him on the cheek. “Look, I just promised Poe that I would introduce him to Finn, we can stick around for an hour, tops, and then go home. Okay?”

“Fi-ine,” groans, releasing her from his lap. “And I don’t have to talk to anyone?”

“You have to say hi to my friends. Nobody else.” 

Rey gives her boyfriend a playful shove before dragging him out the door and to the party. 

In truth, she’s not big on parties either– her old boyfriend used to take her to a lot of them, and she didn’t like the noise, or all the sick and drunk people around, or losing track of the only people she knew in the crowds. But she _did_ promise Poe, and if she can cling to her tall boyfriend the whole time she should be able to cut through the crowds. 

Sure enough, she finds Finn quickly. “I have someone to introduce you to,” she says chipperly, and manages to navigate to Poe. 

“Rey, I told you, you can stop trying to set me up with–”

“Poe, this is Finn. Finn, this is Poe.” 

Miraculously, Finn stops complaining as soon as he sees Poe, and once they are firmly in conversation over a superhero movie Rey has never seen or cared about, she decides to go find Ben and treat him with going home early. But he’s not in the living room where she left him, and she begins to panic a little. 

The last time, she recalls, when she lost Mitaka, he’d been in the bathroom, with– ugh, no, she doesn’t even want to think about it. But Ben wouldn’t do that, Ben would _never_ do that, not her Ben, she tells herself. 

And sure enough, she finds Ben sitting on the kitchen counter, eating something out of a slow cooker with a plastic fork. 

“What’re you eating?”

“Buffalo chicken dip.” He hands her a forkful. “It’s actually not too bad.” 

Rey takes the fork from him. He’s right, it’s pretty good. “You ready to go home?”

He perks up. “Already?”

“Sure. We can go home and watch a movie and have the leftover spaghetti.” 

Ben takes another forkful of chicken dip, before sliding down off the counter. Holding hands as they walk out, Rey stops at the door to kiss him.

“What was that for?” Ben asks, still blushing a little though they’ve been together for six months. 

“Nothing,” Rey mumbles. “Just– I love you, okay?”

Whether he senses something wrong, or just wants to hold her close, but he does, and whispers, “I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like and comment! I do take prompts. Happy New Year!


	6. On the Ship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey doesn't remember how exactly she got to Starkiller base, but Ben does. He remembers every second of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was inspired by a conversation I had on /r/reylo, about how Kylo might have carried Rey on the ship to Starkiller. I wrote a little drabble for it, hope you enjoy!

“Shall I take the girl?” 

Kylo dismisses the officer who helps him onto the ship. With the scavenger and the information she carries securely in his arms, he will not trust her to anyone else until the journey is completed. 

So, while the pilot straps in for take off and the two remaining officers sit down, he keeps Rey delicately cradled by him, holding her securely even as the ship shakes. 

(And _no_ , he would not think of touching her in any other way, not while she is unconscious or at his mercy– he may be a monster, but he is not _that_ sort of monster, and may the maker be merciful and kill him if he ever becomes such.)

She is silent for most of the journey, comfortably unconscious in the Force-sleep Kylo put her under. In fact, she only stirs once in the entire ride, finding herself half-awake in his lap, seemingly not noticing where she is or who she is with. 

“Where–”

“You’re safe. Go back to sleep,” he tells her, though he puts no Force behind the words. It is a reassurance, not a command. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

“But no, I need to–”

“Shh. You can take care of it later, rest.” 

Rey adjusts herself so she wraps her arms around his neck, nuzzling into the crook of his shoulder. And this is _not_ a position he should be in with the Jedi, but waking her up all the way would be far more dangerous, so he leaves her be. 

“Where are we going?” 

“Somewhere safe,” he promises. 

“Somewhere nice?”

“Yeah, somewhere nice.” And can’t he pretend, can’t he pretend through his mask and his gloves and false confidence, that this is real? That whatever this is, him and her, and her curled up in his arms, and his gentle reassurances this will all be alright, when it will not, cannot be alright. 

“‘Kay.” She buries her head in his neck again. 

“Go to sleep now, Rey.”

“‘Night, Ben,” she mumbles happily. 

And Rey will forget this (if she ever remembered it): she was half-asleep the whole time, barely knew what she was doing or saying except that she felt safe. She will never know this happened, until he confesses it to her much later, when she finally knocks a little sense into him and they finally go and make a real life together. 

Kylo, though– he will remember this. He will remember the way it felt to hold her in his arms and to hear her voice in his ear, he will remember how it was for her to feel _safe_ with him. 

And most of all he will remember (and wonder), when she whispered his name in his ear, his _real_ name, and how in the galaxy could she have possibly known. 

He has always heard that the Force works in mysterious ways, but nonetheless it seems to know what it’s doing every now and then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I am still taking prompts. Also I changed the title again because I am dumb. Thank you for your time.


	7. Be Still My Indelible Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Oh sure things are shitty all over but that lingering 20-year knowledge of your old childhood friend's landline number can only be credited to love's enduring nature."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by this Hozier tweet: https://br.pinterest.com/pin/780952391631447090/
> 
> Title taken from Hozier's "Wasteland, Baby!". 
> 
> Please enjoy.

They meet in fourth grade on the playground. Rey just moved in, is living in a new foster home, and doesn’t know anyone. Ben is known by the other children at school as moody and strange, but Rey approaches him nonetheless. 

Ben shares his lunch with Rey, because she’s far hungrier than him, and Rey shares her sidewalk chalk with Ben, who carefully renders a butterfly with his chubby, blue-dusted hands. 

It’s oddly easy to become friends at that age, all you need is one common interest, but even nine-year-old Ben can see he’d like to stay friends with her as long as he can. 

Then, at the end of the school day, when Ben walks Rey to the bus stop before he has to wait for Threepio to pick him up, he remembers something cool his neighbor Poe (who’s _sixteen_ ) said once to another guy and asks Rey, “Can I call you sometime?”

“Sure,” Rey says with a laugh. “My number’s 614-2187. You got that?” 

“614-2187,” Ben repeats. “Got it.” 

“Maz might pick up, but just tell her you’re calling me, okay? Bye!” 

Then Rey disappears onto the bus, and Ben skribbles down her number the second he can get a piece of paper. When he gets home he calls Rey as soon as his parents will let him, and his dad says he’s got that Solo charm and his mother glares, and Rey picks up and starts jabbering to him about a book he’d mentioned earlier and he stays on the phone ‘til Maz makes Rey go to bed. 

He sticks Rey’s number to the fridge with a magnet, and the paper disintegrates but he doesn’t need it for long because it’s practically burned into the keypad before long. 

And Rey stays his friend through middle school and high school. And when he gets the flu Rey sneaks into his room to visit him, and then she gets the flu too because the well-meaning fool she is, and Ben visits her too because what else would he do? 

And when Ben’s cat runs away Rey bikes through the neighborhood all night until she finds Artie under a bush outside the 7-11 and then gives his parents a heart attack by banging on the back door in the middle of the night. 

And when Rey gets braces Ben gives up caramel and popcorn and gum too, so she won’t feel bad, and helps her pick which color bands she wants every month. 

And when Ben comes out to her as genderfluid in 10th grade Rey lets him practice makeup on her before he tries it on himself, even though she’s not very good at sitting still for him. 

And when Maz finds herself in the hospital one night he drives way all the way their and stays with her all night so she doesn’t have to wait alone until Maz can go home. 

And then Rey gets accepted into the botany program in California she wanted, and Ben gets accepted to the music program in Michigan he wanted, and they realize they’ll have to go their separate ways. 

“You can always call me,” she reminds him, and it makes him laugh a little because they don’t call half as much these days when they usually just text each other, or else Rey will run out in the middle of the night to see him, because age has still not given her any much-needed impulse control when it comes to him. 

“It won’t be the same.” They’ll be in different time zones, they’ll have classes, and Rey will make new friends, maybe even a boyfriend. 

“It can be different in a good way, too, Ben,” she says, “You don’t have to be so sad. I’ll still be me.” 

“Different how?”

_“Well,”_ Rey says, then turns around to kiss him softly. “It could be like that.” 

The potential is wonderful, but soona after Rey goes away they lose track of each other. Ben signs on with a record label. Rey graduates and starts working in a prominent lab, working on sustainable food and farming. He tries to text her once or twice, but finds that her cell number has been disconnected. He stops coming back for breaks, and Maz moves away to somewhere warmer as she gets older so Rey stops visiting too. 

He doesn’t forget her, and he never stops missing her, but she’s not a constant anymore. 

Then Han dies. 

Ben has to admit that his relationship with his father became strained as he grew older and stopped visiting, and as his parents became more uncertain about his career. But now he’s back at his old home, cleaning out his father’s things, and mere seconds away from a likely breakdown. His mother hasn’t been able to come yet, she is at a vote at the state senate and won’t be home ‘til Friday. 

And Ben feels horribly, devastatingly alone. 

Then, as he opens his father’s wallet, a single photo falls out, of himself and Rey at the beach, taken on his father’s horrible old polaroid that he brought everywhere anyways. 

_Rey._ He can think of no one he would rather talk to. But he doesn’t know how he could, or why she would. Still, he can’t stop staring at her freckled grin in the photos. 

Then he sees their old landline, which Han moved to his room as it became obsolete to msot of the rest of the family, and remembers. Remembers calling Rey for the first time on that, then a hundred thousand times after that. 

With shaking hands, he punches Rey’s number onto the worn-down buttons. _614-2187._

It rings exactly three times before someone picks up. 

“Hello?”

_“Rey.”_

_“Ben!_ Oh my god, is that you?”

“Rey,” he repeats shakily. “Yeah, it’s me, it’s me.”

“How did you know I was here?”

“I didn’t he,” he admits. “I just– tried it.”

“You tried my landline number that I give you twenty years ago?” She laughs. “You haven’t changed a bit, have you?”

“I–” 

“I’m on my way over,” she says. “I’ve missed you, I meant to call you, but my phone broke and I lost all my contacts, and then I saw you were doing so well now, and–”

“Yes,” he gasps, “Yes, please come here, please.”

He can practically here Rey’s smile as she sets the phone back in the cradle. 

Things like this can only be credited to love’s enduring nature.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments always appreciated! Finally put my genderfluid Ben Solo head canon into something, lol. Thanks for reading!


	8. On A Budget

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben are paired up for an economics assignment, but they have a major difference of opinion on some key points.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by this tumblr post about an economics assignment: https://br.pinterest.com/pin/780952391633097047/
> 
> This is just a cute little one-shot I banged out in an hour, I hope you enjoy!

“Alright, you’ll be working pairs for your next assignment,” Mrs. Holdo says. The assignment was to create a budget for a family of four for a month, fairly standard for their economics class. Shouldn’t be too hard, either, Rey thinks, she’s made real budgets on less than this. 

Unfortunately, her partner, Ben, seems to think otherwise. 

“We can’t shop at Whole foods, Ben,” Rey sighs. “The SuperTarget is fine. We’re on a _budget.”_

“There’s no point in living if we can’t have nice things, Rey,” he sighs in reply. She’s known him since middle school, hanging out when their friends happened to be, and perhaps nursing occasional crushes on each other, but she knows little about his family, only that his parents are old money and are better off than her foster mother, Maz. 

“We can have nice things _and_ not pay twenty dollars for a loaf of bread,” she replies. “Now then: breakfast. Toast?” 

“Yes. With olive oil.” 

“You have olive oil on your _toast?_ ” She shakes her head. He’s really something else. 

“Of course! It’s healthier and tastes better than butter. And you can use it for cooking oil, and salad dressings.” 

“Ok, maybe we can afford olive oil if we buy in bulk… how much olive oil do you use in a month?” 

“You’ve never had olive oil?” 

“I don’t eat _olive oil toast._ Some of us commoners have to eat butter.” 

“I can show you such a better life, Rey.” 

She rolls her eyes. “Ok, the children can probably have lunch at school.” 

He stares at her in shock. “ _Children?_ We have _children?_ ”

“Of course we have children! It’s for a family of four! Who did you think the other two were?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t think about that!” 

“This is why we’re in debt, Ben, you can’t even remember your own children!” She shakes her head. “We can bring sandwiches into work.” 

“Yes. With ham.” 

“We can’t have ham, I’m vegetarian,” she replies. 

“But I’m not.” 

“We only get one sandwich filling, so it has to be vegetarian.” 

He sighs. “I suppose that makes sense if we’re married.” 

This time Rey is the one in shock. “We’re _married?_ ” 

“Of course we’re married!” Ben says in a scandalized voice. “We have _children!_ I’m an honest man!” 

“Well, it’s good to know you have no designs on my _purity_ ,” she growls. “I swear to god, if you’re about to suggest some hoity-toity dinner, I’m not sure I can do this.” 

“Don’t be ridiculous. We can have tortellini with a green salad, perfectly reasonable, and a vegetable for these _children_ we apparently have.” 

“Don’t bring the children into this,” she growls. “Our problems have nothing to do with them.” 

“ _Our_ problems? Is it my problem that you have no idea how to live life with a little style?” 

“Marriage is supposed to be about coexisting! Working together and compromising! You aren’t even trying, you’re acting like your still living in your ivory tower–”

“And you won’t even try to step out of your comfort zone!”

“I thought you knew what we were getting into when we got married, that I wasn’t used to your life. That we would both have to make some changes.” 

“And I thought you understood I would need time.” 

“You’ve had time, Ben. Where’s that man I fell in love with? The boy with stars in his eyes who taught me the names of the constellations and didn’t even know what champagne was?” She doesn’t actually know if he knows the names of the constellations, but they took a class trip to the planetarium once and he seemed to enjoy it. He really _did_ look like he had stars in his eyes. 

“And where’s the girl who rode a motorcycle and swam in creeks and took risks? You are _not_ the woman I fell in love with.” 

“Marrying you was the biggest mistake I ever made!” 

“I could say the same to you!” 

He slams his notebook down on the table. “I can’t live like this anymore! I don’t know what’s happened to you! It’s like I don’t even know you!” 

“Maybe you never did!” She shouts as he storms away. By now, she realizes, almost everyone in the class is staring. 

“I’m sorry! I can’t live with someone who thinks only of luxuries!” 

Mrs. Holdo raises an eyebrow. “Perhaps you should save the theatrics for drama, Ms. Kanata. Now perhaps you can convince your husband to return to class.” 

Rey nods, and steps out of the classroom to where Ben is, scribbling in a notebook. 

“You know,” Rey says. “Maybe divorce isn’t the answer.” 

“What?” 

“Maybe the boy with stars in his eyes is still in there.” 

“I… I suppose it’s worth a try.”

“At least for the children,” she agrees. “We can’t give up on everything just because we’ve changed.” 

“I don’t think I’ll ever give up on the girl I fell in love with.” He slips his hands into hers and pulls her close. “If you’ll let me.” 

“I never gave up on you either, Ben,” she whispers as she pulls him down for a kiss that she’d thought about since her first middle school crush. She can feel him smiling even as she does. 

“This isn’t for the homework anymore, is it?” He asks as she pulls away. 

“No grades,” she confirms. “Now common, honey, let’s go budget out our month. For the children.” 

“Whatever you say, sweetheart. Just as long as I get to take you out to dinner on Saturday.” 

“We’ll see if we can afford it.” 

“Hey. Compromise, remember? If this is going to work…” 

“Yeah, yeah,” she laughs. “But we have to go somewhere affordable, okay?” 

“I wish I could take you away from all this,” he sighs dramatically. “You deserve a better life.” 

“I don’t want a better life,” she replies. “I want you.” 

Ben blushes adorably, and Rey has to return to the budget to keep from blushing herself. 

(They get an A on the assignment, but Amilyn Holdo knows better than to ever pair them up for group work again.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please be sure to drop a comment if you enjoyed it!


	9. Piggie Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben the Guinea pig has a new cage-mate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's not much going on here. It's a guinea pig AU. I love guinea pigs. I love Reylo. I decided to combine them. Thanks for reading! Check end notes for content warnings.

“Here, Ben, I’ve got a friend for you,” he hears Rose chirp as she opens the cage lid. “She’s a little shy, so you need to be patient with her, okay?” 

Ben sniffs the air cautiously. He can already catch another guinea pig’s scent, new and unfamiliar. 

A few days ago, Rose had cleaned out a third of his cage and squeezed all his toys and food into the rest of it. Then she’d put up a barrier and filled it with _more_ toys and things he wasn’t allowed to play with. He didn’t understand it, truly. 

He presses up against the bars of the cage as the new pig is lowered into her cage, squealing and kicking. This one clearly doesn’t like being picked up. 

She immediately bolts into her hidey-house upon landing in the cage, but Ben is able to catch a glimpse of her first. She has short, mostly white fur, and a single brown stripe. Her eyes are dark brown. She has fur missing in a few spots. He remembers when he came in with matted fur, and Rose and Paige had to cut it all out like that until his pretty agouti coat grew back. 

Ben peers through the barrier at this strange newcomer who has taken it upon herself to claim this part of his cage. Well, he learned from his old home that he was safest when he kept to himself, so he does his best to ignore the usurper and goes to eat some hay. 

He keeps an eye on Rey through the rest of the day and during the night, waiting for her to emerge from the hut, but she remains firmly planted. Once, he wakes up from a nap to see her eating outside of the cage, but she runs away as soon as she sees him. 

He quickly realizes that Rey is just as scared of him as he was of the other pigs he used to live with. 

The Tico sisters rescued Ben from a breeder a year ago. He lived in a cage with a dozen other guinea pigs, where he was constantly being poked and prodded and bit. His right eye never fully recovered, but other than that he’s learned to live with and trust his people. Still, a roommate guinea pig… that seems like a bit much. Well, he makes sure to mark his territory around his part of the cage that night.

When Rose opens the cage lid the next morning, Ben immediately runs squealing to the front of the cage. _Floor time!_ Floor time will mean pats and snuggles, but most importantly, _veggies._ He can already smell celery on the air as Rose scoops him up out of the cage and sets him on the blanket. 

He crawls around the blanket for a bit, picking up the pieces of vegetables, until it is time to return to the cage, along with the remaining celery. 

Next, Rose tries to pull Rey out of the cage, but she retreats into the house. When she lifts up the house, Rey starts clicking her teeth menacingly, and Rose decides that the other pig is not ready to come out of the cage just yet. 

Ben’s not sure he is ready to share floor time, either, but he’s worried Rey won’t get any veggies if she doesn’t come out, so he pokes a piece of celery through the barrier and waits to see if she will accept the offering. 

She stares at it for a little while before bolting out of her hut to nab it, and then returning inside. 

Well, that’s progress at least. 

He regrets his sacrifice later when Rose gives Rey some veggies of her own, but he’s got plenty on his side of the cage, so his dismay is short-lived. 

It takes Rey a few days to have the courage to stay out of her house for more than a couple minutes at a time. Ben tries to inspect closer, but she clicks her teeth at him angrily and he stays on his side of the cage. 

*

Rey is slow to trust: before Paige found her, she was living in a tiny glass aquarium at a pet store, which she shared with a much larger and very territorial pig, and there were always kids running through and banging on the glass. 

Ben seems harmless enough, but he’s awfully friendly with the giant hands that reach into her cage, and he seems to want his space to himself. Well, so long as the barrier is between them, she will stay on her half of the cage and he will stay on his. 

The hands, she soon learns, always have veggies with them, and will let her run around on the floor if she lets them pick her up. She’s still not too fond of being handled, but it’s worth it for the treats. 

Eventually, they decide, it’s time for her and Ben to be introduced properly. Rose holds Rey carefully, while Paige lets Ben sniff her over, and then they trade. But, when they’re set on the blanket together, Rey decides that Ben is getting far too close and bolts back to Rose. 

There’s nothing objectionable about him, she decides, but he should still stay on his half of the cage. 

Ben, however, disagrees, and repeats his attempts to get to know his cage-mate better. He’s been lonely for a while. Maybe he could use a friend. 

He offers her another gift of a small wooden chew toy, which she is happy to grind her teeth on. He squeaks amicably at her at night, trying to strike up conversation, and she is occasionally receptive. 

Rey is willing to consider Ben her friend after a while, but only thinks of him as much as he is squealing at her, until the humans take him out of his cage and put him in a smaller cage, to go away for most of the day. 

“Poor Ben,” she hears Rose sigh. “I hope he gets better soon.” 

Ben is not in the mood to talk when he is returned to the cage, instead curling up into a ball next to his water bottle. 

Rey is considered. She knows what a healthy guinea pig should act and smell like, and Ben bears all the marks of being under the weather. He won’t even get up to get his food. 

She decides it’s about time she returns his kindnesses, and pokes vegetables and hay through the bars of the cage to catch his attention. Finally, he takes a little bite of carrot, and she chirps at him encouragingly until he finishes it. 

Rose and Paige give him some medicine with a syringe, and he gets better quickly. After that, they decide, the two pigs are ready to live in the same cage. She removes the barriers, and rearranges their things a little bit, and watches them to guage their reaction. 

Accustomed to living separately, they stay in their own areas for a little bit, but Rey gets curious and decides to sniff over Ben, and, seeing he didn’t keep himself well-groomed while he was sick, put a few of his stray hairs back into place. 

“They’re going to be best friends,” Rose decides, and closes the cage lid. 

The two bond quickly sharing a space, squeezing into one house to snuggle and groom and share their vegetables. Ben becomes very protective of his more skittish friend. Once, Paige tries to take Rey from the cage when she’s sleeping, and Ben places a protective paw over her, clicking his teeth at the threat. Paige leaves them alone, and Rey slumbers on. 

And, there is one thing Ben is far more scared of than Rey: the vacuum cleaner, which disturbs their peace once a weak, and requires her to stand guard over the house to make sure nothing attempts to come for him inside. 

“Rey’s gaining weight,” Rose announces happily one day, after weighing her on the kitchen scale. “Look, she’s a grown and healthy piggie now.” 

Rey is indeed gaining weight, though at an unusual rate for a pig, and Ben noses at her belly to inquire: _Babies?_

_Babies,_ Rey confirms happily, nuzzling his chin. 

Ben and Rey begin to make nests of hay and shred for the babies, though their humans have no respect for this creation and remove it when they clean the cage. 

Then, a few weeks later, Rey starts to pace the cage, squealing and whining and unable to settle down. It’s the middle of the day, when the humans never answer no matter how loudly they squeal, and Ben is left alone to take care of his mate. 

She works hard, but she’s strong, and soon three fluffy baby guinea pigs are curled up at her side, and Ben is left to stand guard over his family to make sure no one disturbs them while they rest. 

“Paige!” Rose shouts when she opens the cage that night. “I seem to recall you telling me that Rey had been neutered?” 

“That’s what the pet store said,” she replies, poking her head in. “Why?” 

“Well, clearly, she wasn’t,” Rose sighs, pointing at the guinea pig family inside the cage. 

But while Paige and Rose worry over the new situation, Ben and Rey curl up happily with their family, safe and sound together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: Past animal abuse, pregnancy
> 
> Check out some of my reylo guinea pig art on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/reylo/comments/lol80o/did_some_reyloasguineapigs_doodles_might_write_a/
> 
> Please drop a comment or a prompt!!!

**Author's Note:**

> I also take prompts! Please drop them in the comments and I will do my best to fill it out. Please enjoy


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